True Auto Insurance Reform

June 04, 1990|The Morning Call

To the Editor:

Your May 15 editorial "Pa. insurance law is a tiny reform" served your readership. However, it fell short in explaining the potential turmoil imposed on insurance companies, insurance agents and, most importantly, every auto policyholder in the state as a result of the ill-conceived 1990 law.

No one disagrees with the concept that there is much needed reform, not only in Pennsylvania but throughout the country, in order to hold down the spiraling cost of auto insurance. The governor and the legislature erred badly in thinking that they could play "Robin Hood," in this day and age, by taking millions of dollars from the insurance companies and giving those millions to policyholders in the form of rollback. This part of the law is bad; this is not reform.

Auto reform means cracking down on the estimated 375,000 to 400,000 uninsured drivers in Pennsylvania and punish them; health care cost containment which establishes a cap at 110 percent of Medicare and will have a peer review board to review claims; auto reform means creating a $10,000 fine plus costs for frivolous lawsuits and makes auto insurance fraud a felony, and so forth.

The rollback portion of the law should be repealed. This would satisfy all the insurance companies and restore order in the auto insurance marketplace.